The split between the moderates and the extremists took place at which session of the Congress?

The correct answer is B, W. C. Bonnerjee. Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, a Calcutta barrister, presided over the first session of the Congress at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay from 28 to 31 December 1885, attended by seventy-two delegates. A is wrong because Dadabhai Naoroji presided over the second session at Calcutta in 1886, and again in 1893 and 1906; he is the Grand Old Man of India but not the first president. C is wrong because Allan Octavian Hume founded the Congress and served as its general secretary for many years, yet he presided only later, in 1894 at Madras. D is wrong because Badruddin Tyabji presided over the Madras session of 1887 and is remembered as the first Muslim president of the Congress, two years after the first session.

The correct answer is B, Lahore, 1929. The Lahore session of December 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, declared complete independence to be the goal of the Congress and called upon the country to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day; the tricolour was hoisted on the bank of the Ravi on 31 December 1929. A is wrong because the Karachi session of 1931 is remembered for the resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme and for endorsing the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. C is wrong because the Calcutta session of 1928 considered the Nehru Report, which still asked for dominion status rather than complete independence. D is wrong because the Nagpur session of 1920 adopted Non-Cooperation and rewrote the Congress constitution, defining the goal as swaraj by all legitimate and peaceful means.

The correct answer is C, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Bose was re-elected president at the Tripuri session of 1939 after defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, but the Working Committee would not serve under him; he resigned in April 1939 and Rajendra Prasad was asked to take the chair for the remainder of the year. A is wrong because Jawaharlal Nehru had presided in 1929 and 1936 and would preside again in 1937 and 1951, but he did not step in after Bose resigned. B is wrong because Pattabhi Sitaramayya was the candidate Bose had defeated in the election; he became president only in 1948, at Jaipur. D is wrong because Acharya J. B. Kripalani became president much later, at the Meerut session of 1946, the last session before independence.

The correct answer is B, Annie Besant. She presided over the Calcutta session of 1917 and was the first woman president of the Congress, in the same years in which she was leading the Home Rule League. A is wrong because Sarojini Naidu, who presided at Kanpur in 1925, was the first Indian woman president of the Congress, which is a different distinction and the commonest confusion in this question. C is wrong because Nellie Sengupta presided over the Calcutta session of 1933 and was the third woman to hold the office. D is wrong because Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was a leading organiser of the salt satyagraha and of handicrafts and cooperatives after independence, but she never presided over a Congress session. A useful way to keep the two apart is that Besant was the first woman of any nationality to preside, while Naidu was the first Indian woman, and the Kanpur session of 1925 came eight years after Besant Calcutta session of 1917.

The correct answer is A, Belgaum, 1924. The Belgaum session in Karnataka is the only session of the Congress over which Mahatma Gandhi presided, and in his presidential year he worked chiefly for Hindu-Muslim unity, khadi and the removal of untouchability. B is wrong because the Gaya session of 1922 was presided over by C. R. Das, and it was there that the no-changers and the pro-changers divided over entering the legislatures, a quarrel that produced the Swaraj Party. C is wrong because the Kanpur session of 1925 was presided over by Sarojini Naidu, the first Indian woman to hold the office. D is wrong because the Ahmedabad session of 1921 was presided over by Hakim Ajmal Khan, who acted in place of C. R. Das while Das was in jail.